Galactic Strongholds Delayed

I found myself at work today when an interesting email came to my phone; it was from SWTOR. The email more or less linked me to the official producer’s letter by Senior Producer Bruce Mclain, which you can read here. Turns out, Galactic Strongholds is being delayed. After taking some time to put my own thoughts together, I’ve decided the best approach to take here is give an update reward list and give my thoughts after.

Preferred Status Players beginning July 29 September 2014 will receive:

Early Access to Galactic Strongholds on July 29September 2014

Stronghold Label: “Galactic Stronghold”

Character Title: “The Illustrious”

The official launch is at some date in October 2014. The final date will be announced later.

Okay, so now I want to share my two credits on this announcement really fast. I’m not happy that this expansion is being delayed. I was one of the few that was looking forward to the new content coming in just a few months. However, once I really dug into that producer’s letter, I began to realize why they were doing this.

This additional time allows us to add:

Conquest Events: use the power of your Stronghold to dominate these events and earn rewards

Guild Flagships will now offer expanded functionality for Guilds:New Stronghold: Tatooine HomesteadVehicles, Mounts, Pets, and Companion Characters can be placed as decorations in Strongholds

Provide powerful buffs to Guild members from orbit

Transport entire groups to your personal coordinates instantaneously

Compete in Conquest Events to conquer entire planets

New Stronghold: Tatooine Homestead

Vehicles, Mounts, Pets, and Companion Characters can be placed as decorations in Strongholds

We have been listening to what you, our players, were hoping to see from the Galactic Strongholds expansion. When playing early builds of Galactic Strongholds it became that clear that our June Early Access date was simply not enough.

It would seem from the new features, as well as the quote given about the timeline that BioWare was not planning for this expansion to be as big as the community wanted it to be. My best guess would be that the feedback that was being given on the forums was overwhelming and player desires didn’t even begin to match what BioWare was offering in their current version of Galactic Strongholds, especially in regards to Guild ships. That considered, I could see why they would want extra time now to expand their vision. All that considered, I’m not mad about the push back. I’m just excited to see what the expansion will actually be like at launch now.

Stay tuned to SWTOR Reforged and Quest Gaming Network for any further updates to Galactic Strongholds, we’ll keep you posted.